Monday, February 27, 2012

#CharlotteChurch on phone hacking: 'I don't plan to let this lie'

Singer tells Guardian she settled phone-hacking claim to stop further stories about her family being dragged up in courtCharlotte Church is in fighting form.

She has just settled her acrimonious case with News International over her News of the World phone-hacking claim and plans to use her portion of the damages payment to fight privacy actions against other newspapers.

The Welsh singer, actor and TV presenter says she was treated unfairly by Rupert Murdoch's British publishing arm, yet was forced to settle her case because his company had threatened to invade her privacy all over again by dragging up "ancient" stories about an affair her stepfather, James, had and a suicide attempt by her mother, Maria.

Church is sharing the £300,000 in damages with James and Maria, with the rest of the settlement consisting of legal costs. She says she is considering using the money to pursue a privacy action against at least one other national newspaper.

The civil action against News International was, she says, a battle of "David and Goliath" proportions with the resources of one of the world's biggest media companies ranged against her small team.

Church feared for the health of her mother if she was cross-examined and decided no money was worth it. Murdoch's News Corporation, she says, has "learned nothing" from the phone-hacking scandal, judging by its defence strategy.

"I really wanted to take it all the way as well. I am really sorry, I hope people don't feel let down, but the thing is it's not so black and white, it's definitely not a case of money; it became totally irrelevant," Church adds, in an interview with the Guardian conducted in her kitchen in south Wales last week, after the case had been settled but before Monday's high court statement revealing details of the payout.

She says she felt as if she was left "trying to fight with two hands and a leg tied behind [my] back and you can just kick with one leg".

"You just have to look at the court room, look at News International and their 25 lawyers and then look at the individuals with maybe their three lawyers and one barrister and a couple of juniors," Church adds. "You are fighting a massive corporation with endless resources, a phenomenal amount of power and it is just made really difficult."

Church says she was shocked when police first told her that her phone had been hacked by the News of the World between 2002 and 2006. "We did think at the time, they are bugging us. You think, 'Christ they must have microphones in the house' but then it seemed so preposterous that you don't take it to the police, it seemed so sci-fi, so James Bond," she says.

She describes how her family "were targeted and watched" by the paper for years and how undercover reporters and photographers "immersed themselves" in her life, turning up at coffee shops, on holidays, and breaking into the grounds of her house.

"For four years, four or five photographers, always journalists, always people following me, constantly trying to infiltrate my group," Church recalls. "If I'm going somewhere for a cup of coffee, I don't even know who these people are but they are on the next table, they are there listening. They totally immersed themselves in my life."

Church, 26, recalls the gilded life she had when she became a child star at the age of 11, travelling around the world "meeting popes and presidents", but how it suddenly changed when she turned 14 and how media coverage started to become increasingly negative after she fell out with a former manager.

The press started to depict her mother, Maria – who took over looking after her business affairs – as a power-hungry, greedy "Welsh dragon" who was managing the child star for her money, when all she was doing was trying to protect her child from the media, says Church.

"She was absolutely phenomenal. She somehow made sure that I'm sane."

Although she doesn't want to "dwell on it" for obvious reasons, News International's defence strategy hinged on the mental state of her mother and the cause of an attempted suicide seven years ago.

According to Church, at a pre-trial hearing Michael Silverleaf QC, counsel for the publisher, noted there would be "significant debate" over whether the News of the World was "responsible" for the distress caused to her mother and said a fresh medical examination would be required.

Church told the Leveson inquiry last year how her mother tried to kill herself shortly before the News of the World published a story about her father having an affair and taking cocaine.

Church recalls the events with clarity.

Her mother and father were already reconciled after the affair; her mother was in "absolute bits" about what had happened but the News of the World "blackmailed" her into giving a first hand account of her trauma in exchange for not publishing "part two" of the story on her husband, she says.

"[They said] 'If you give us a story, an exclusive about your self-harming, your attempted suicide, your relationship with Charlotte, then we won't print that story and that story will never see the light of day'," Church adds.

Her mother, at her wits' end, agreed.

Church recalls angrily how the journalists asked her mother if they could take pictures of her arms and how her mother erupted and said "are you taking the piss?".

"In the pre-trial hearing, Silverleaf made it reasonably plain the way they were going to be playing it.

They were subjecting my mother to a psychological analysis, which is ridiculous.

How are you going to get a psychologist for an hour to judge what happened seven years ago?

It was just a totally pointless exercise," she says.

"They were just going to drag my parents through the mud again and I couldn't let that happen. I've seen what it's done to my family the first time round and they were going to do it all over again which just says to me they haven't learned anything."

This meant the case "wasn't going to be about the criminal activity", according to Church. "They were going to put such an aggressive defence up to weaken us." And this is why she settled.

Her manager, John Vernile, says the defence strategy didn't address any of the key points of the claims by Church and her family, which centred on phone hacking and surveillance.

In a pre-trial hearing in early February, Church's barrister, David Sherborne, told the high court that 33 News of the World articles between 2002 and 2006 were the "result of the ill-gotten gains of phone hacking".

But Church's case went further than just hacking and invasion of privacy – she wanted punitive, or exemplary damages for the distress caused to her mother and her stepfather and it was this that became a "horrendous" battleground.

News International was not going to call any witnesses in defence of phone hacking, so it meant only her side would be cross-examined.

"What it becomes about then, is me and my parents being cross examined on the stand by a phenomenal barrister and it becomes about that and just becomes less about their criminality, and the fact they played it that way, to me, says they learned nothing," says Church.

Despite having settled and the anguish the process caused her family, she says she has some sense of victory because they have forced the police and News International to disclose as much data as possible about their case which can now be fed into any potential criminal actions against former News of the World journalists.

"This is one of the hardest things I've ever been through, it's been so stressful," she says, adding: "I don't plan to let this lie at all."

Had the Churchs lost – and under civil litigation law there was a strong possibility of this – they would have been left with a bill of between £1.5m and £2m to cover the costs of News International, according to her manager Vernile.

It was, he adds, an enormous gamble to go to full trial. "You're having to play this russian roulette," he says.

Church doesn't know how far up the chain at News International knowledge of phone hacking went, but she has strong views about former News of the World editors Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks, who went on to become News International chief executive.

"I don't know what their involvement was, but looking at their positions as editor of the News of the World, the other being the head of the umbrella company, I think they behaved very irresponsibly and I think they put a lot of people at risk."

• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".

• To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook.